This Ain't a Fairytale

“Leigh?” I winced at the gasp Sidney let out when I walked into the player’s lounge. It was basically empty, but the way his voice echoed around the room was loud to my ears.

“Hey Sid,” I forced a chuckle, wishing I’d put more makeup on. It was hard to gauge in the mirror at home whether the slight bruise where Josh’s fingers had dug in a little harder than his slap were visible, but I’d thought they were covered.

“What the hell happened to you?” he hissed, pulling me into him and inspecting my cheek thoroughly. I winced when his fingers traced over the tender skin, and I knew that he’d noticed.

“Did Josh do this?” he asked, and I swallowed hard, looking at my feet and looking for some other explanation, but I didn’t have one.

“Leigh, how could you let him…? Please tell me you broke things off,” he whispered, hugging me tight. I broke down then, feeling the hot tears escape from behind my eyes as a sob ripped from my chest.

“He didn’t mean to Sid, he really didn’t. He was just really upset,” I defended him, and heard Sid sniff. I held him tighter, feeling even worse about agreeing to come and meet him today. I knew Josh would be angry about it, but now that Sid was feeling bad I felt even worse about it.

“Leigh, I hate to say it, but that’s no excuse sweetheart,”

“Sid, he didn’t mean to! He just freaked out and kind of lost it, he felt awful, he apologized as soon as it happened, it was just an accident,” I continued, and Sid just quieted me, rubbing my back and murmuring in my ear.

“It’s because we’re so close Sid. He keeps thinking something’s going on because we spend so much time together and we’re so close and he feels like I’m blowing him off for you all the time,” I sobbed, and he froze up a bit. I knew that was the last thing Sid ever wanted to happen – it had been an issue once before when we were teenagers and a guy broke up with me because we were ‘too close for just friends.’

“Shit. Leigh, I’m so sorry,” he buried his face into my hair, and we held each other for a minute.

“But that’s still no excuse for what he did to you – there is no excuse for what he did to you,” he repeated, but I pulled away. I knew that I shouldn’t have even come to see Sid today, but I couldn’t just not see my best friend.

“Sid, it was an accident, a mistake, and he knows it; he apologized for it and he’s beating himself up about it. It won’t happen again Sid, I know it,” I insisted, and he bit his lip, which let me know that he didn’t like what he’d heard.

“Leigh,”

“Sid it won’t,” I reassured him, and he let out a frustrated sigh.

“Okay, okay. But just in case something ever happens and you don’t want to call me or talk to me about it… here,” he scribbled a number down on a piece of paper he’d pulled out of his pocket. I raised an eyebrow, sighed and pulled out my phone to enter it in, because I knew he wouldn’t back off of this anytime soon.

“There’s no name…?” I asked, and he shook his head.

“No, then Josh can’t get mad and you can’t freak out about it. I’m not saying you’ll ever need to use it, but in case you ever do, you’ll have one, okay?” he asked, and I nodded, leaving the name blank and saving the number in my contacts.

“I better get going Sid – I’m going to make dinner tonight and I need to get groceries, and run a few errands,” I mumbled, and while he looked a little pained he let me leave.